Resurrection Matters. Nurya Love Parish

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СКАЧАТЬ Tickle wrote in The Great Emergence, religion is like the rope that connects the boat to the shoreline: a “cable of meaning”¹ which tethers us to the source of life. Dr. Cornel West says, “Faith is stepping out on nothing and landing on something.”² Religion is what teaches us that the first step into “nothing” leads to life and not—as we would logically expect—to death.

      The church’s crisis and the climate crisis share the same root—a failure to practice the faith that is in us. God’s people have always been distracted from relationship with God; this story begins in Genesis, chapter two. Trespassing against God’s boundaries because we want to be like God is apparently what we do. Many generations have preserved this story. But preserving the story does not mean we understand what it means for our time.

      When it became clear that extracting fossil fuels from the depths of the earth was leading to the destruction of Creation, Christians could have recalled the story of the apple in Eden. We could have remembered that we tend to reach for that which makes us more like God but is actually out of bounds. We could have called for research into the consequences of fossil fuel use. We could have demanded public policy that would steward Creation as witness to God’s glory and a home for future generations. We could have made the health of God’s world our first priority. If we had done so, we would have witnessed to the importance of remembering scripture as a source of wisdom, while also turning to science as a source of fact. We would have rewoven the cable of meaning that is fraying in our lifetimes. And perhaps, we could have changed the course of history.

      The failure to understand and act on the wisdom of scripture did not jeopardize the health of an entire planet in previous generations. But the last hundred years have brought unprecedented technological advances with the maturing of the industrial age into the digital era. The last hundred years have also brought the rise of a market economy focused on short-term financial gain with no effective means to account for long-term ecological cost. Our loss of wisdom means we see Creation as a natural resource to be plundered. The rise of technology provides us the means to plunder it. Our generally accepted accounting counts Creation’s loss as humanity’s gain. We tend to think of ourselves as gods and God as absent. This aspect of humanity goes back to the beginning. It may very well be our end.

      It is unfashionable in an era of pluralism to claim that the church holds unique power to save. But it is certain that the church exists to connect humanity to our Creator. The church holds language, story, tradition, and ritual that can be effective against idolatry. The church is far from perfect. Many, many times in our past we have fallen prey to idolatry ourselves. We have failed to be an obedient church;³ we have not loved God with our whole heart.⁴ But inherent to our core purpose is the language of sin, confession, redemption, absolution, and grace. This language is a gift both the church and the world desperately need to make sense of our current predicament.

      We have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. As a result, our planet is in peril. The good news is that God, in God’s mercy, knows our sinfulness and has provided us a means of salvation in Jesus Christ. We left Eden a long time ago. God came to join us outside its gates. Now, as we turn to Christ and offer our lives for his service, God enables us to become stewards of Creation.

      The stewardship of Creation begins with a renewal of religion. Science exists to teach us facts. Religion provides a language of reverence. A language of reverence leads to a practice of reverence. And the practice of reverence—the recognition that each day we walk on holy ground—is what our planet needs.

CHAPTER ONE

       Taking Resurrection Seriously

      My first journey into the decision-making process that shapes my church’s governance was at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in 2012. It happened to be in Indianapolis, which was an easy drive away. I was curious: what was this gathering like? I signed up to go as a guest for a portion of the meeting. And that’s how I found myself in the visitor’s gallery of the House of Deputies on July 10, 2012.

      The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is a huge event. It combines more than a thousand people meeting for the church’s business—over 800 clergy and laity, and over 300 bishops.¹ Add exhibitors, volunteers, and guests, and it can be overwhelming. I wasn’t quite sure how to navigate it, but I wanted to know how my church made decisions. So I spent some time watching the decision-making body where I felt most at home: the House of Deputies, where laity and clergy deliberate and decide on the resolutions that govern our common life. On July 10, while I sat in the gallery, Resolution C-095 (Structural Reform) came before that house.

      Imagine a vast room the size of a few soccer fields filled with almost a thousand people. Imagine them all facing one direction, sitting at long tables of eight, looking toward a few raised tables of meeting facilitators, note takers, and parliamentarians. Imagine podiums scattered throughout the room with microphones and cameras. Imagine huge screens with the face of whoever is speaking on that screen—because the room is so large that without a screen, a person’s face would be the size of a peanut. Imagine a gallery to the side with another fifty or so people in chairs, watching the floor of the House, where the credentialed voters—elected by their dioceses—make choices for the church’s future. I was in that gallery, watching that huge floor of deputies, still wondering how this all worked.

       Structural Reform

      Resolution C095 (Structural Reform)² came before the House of Deputies in the customary way. It was passed by a diocese at their convention, then considered and revised by a legislative committee of General Convention. But even though it went through an ordinary process, it was far from an ordinary resolution. It began, “Resolved … that this General Convention believes the Holy Spirit is urging The Episcopal Church to reimagine itself.” It called for the appointment of a Task Force “to present the 78th General Convention with a plan for reforming the Church’s structures, governance, and administration.” And it concluded, “Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” ( Jer. 29:11).

      In the gallery, I leaned forward. What kind of discussion would this be? What would be decided?

      Because the House had a time limit, discussion was short. A proposed amendment regarding the makeup of the task force took up most of the time available. Without real conversation on the resolution, it was difficult to tell what might happen. Would a majority of the House of Deputies support the statement that God was calling the church to a new vision? Would the church’s leadership embrace creating a task force that could seek to change many established aspects of our common life?

      President Bonnie Anderson called for prayer before the vote.³ The House hushed for communion with God, then took a voice vote. The “ayes” were resounding. When the “nays” were called, there was silence. Among more than eight hundred people, not a single “nay” was heard.⁴ As people realized what had happened, a ripple of surprise went through the crowd. The Episcopal News Service later reported that the vote “stunned deputies and visitors alike.”⁵

      “The Holy Spirit is urging The Episcopal Church to reimagine itself.” In the gallery, I rejoiced. I knew we needed a newly invigorated Episcopal Church—and other newly invigorated churches as well—to serve the work of God in the world.

       Conversion Matters

      For the first twenty-two years of my life, I didn’t know there was a way to be seriously Christian that included a historical reading of scripture, СКАЧАТЬ